Student complaints risen 44% since top-up fees brought in

Student complaints against universities have shot up since the introduction of top-up tuition fees last year.

Figures out today show that disputes handled by the official adjudicator rose 44 per cent.

It follows predictions that the £3,000 top-up fees, which came in last September, would breed a "consumer culture" in universities, with students more likely to complain because they are paying to study.

In its annual report, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education reveals it dealt with 465 complaints last year - up from 323 in 2005 - which resulted in students receiving £32,500 in compensation.

Most disputes concerned degree results, with students arguing that their work had been marked unfairly or tutors had failed to take into account mitigating reasons for their poor performance.

Other undergraduates claimed their human rights had been breached or they had been discriminated against.

One woman won her case after she complained about being expelled for plagiarism. She claimed that she should have been dealt with more leniently because it was her first offence and it amounted to a very small part of her thesis.

The OIA upheld the complaint "because the university should have taken into account the extent of the plagiarism and should have had a range of penalties proportionate to the offence".

The adjudication body said it was not clear whether the increase in fees was behind the surge in complaints. But it warned that such a trend "may yet be in the pipeline".

Wes Streeting, vice-president of the National Union of Students, said the "dramatic" rise was down to more students realising they could go to the OIA once they had exhausted the appeal options at their colleges.

He added: "It is deeply concerning that universities are obviously not dealing with complaints adequately themselves.

"Students are clearly more vociferous than they used to be and this should be seen as a good thing, as a way of universities better understanding how to drive up quality."

It also emerged that the OIA itself is facing legal action from students who want to challenge its decisions in the courts.

"We remain concerned at the cost of legal proceedings into which we have been drawn, in our belief quite inappropriately," it said.

The report was published it emerged that students who miss out on a good degree are up to twice as likely to be out of work.

Unemployment is lowest among graduates with a first class degree and a 2.1 class, the Higher Education Statistics Agency found.

More than eight per cent of those with a 2.2 and 11 per cent with a third class degree are "assumed to be unemployed".